Speech TherapySpeech Therapy

To provide effective and efficient services within an interdisciplinary framework.

To provide a range of therapy models to meet individual needs as well as to provide advice and counseling related to communication and swallowing disability.

To provide training for people in close contact with the client ( e.g. relatives , work colleagues , health care workers ) with regard to ways to support and maximize communication and swallowing abilities.

To take proactive role in the prevention of the development of conditions related to communication, voice, swallowing.

Main service provided:

Assessment and intervention services are provided by the Speech - Language Therapists to address the following:

Articulation and Phonology Disorders:

Articulation and phonology disorders are errors in the person’s speech sound.

These may be caused by difficulty with the muscles making the sound or difficulty with hearing and recognizing sound. For example a person may say ‘w’ or ‘r’ (‘wabbit’ instead of ‘rabbit’). Lips and tongue thrust also fall under this category.

Assessment and intervention services are offered to anyone above the age of 3 years with concern about articulations.

Development Language Delay:

Language development depends on the child’s age. As a child grows their language should expand: by 12 months of age a child should begin to develop one or more words; by 18 months they should have about 20 words; and by the age of two years the child should be combining the words together.

Assessment and intervention services are offered to children above the age of 1 year with concerns of language delay.

Fluency and stuttering Disorders:

Stuttering is a disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions of sounds, syllabus, words, or phrases, (such as c-c-c-.cat), prolongations of sounds (such as ssssister), and involuntary silent pause or blocks in which the person is unable to produce sound or words (such as b_oy).

Assessment and intervention is provided to anyone 3+ years with concerns of dysfluency.

Auditory Processing disorder

Children with auditory processing difficulties have a normal hearing and level of intellect, but the brain has difficulties interpreting the auditory signals received through the ear and the auditory nerve. By training the brain to recognize auditory stimuli- specifically speech-speech therapy can greatly improve the ability to comprehend auditory information.

Assessment and intervention services are provided to children 7+ years (school going age) who seem to have normal hearing but still have problems understanding slightly complex conversation or instructions.

Dysphagia (feeding and swallowing Disorders)

Feeding and swallowing disorder occurs when certain foods and fluids become difficult to chew or swallow and can result in coughing, choking or food or fluid entering the lungs. This is called aspiration and can lead to pneumonia. Infants can experience difficulties with breast or bottle feeding or transitioning to solids or cup drinking. Adults can experience difficulties after stroke, traumatic brain injury, from degenerative diseases such as motor neuron disease, or as part of the ageing process.

Assessments, including Modified Barium Swallowing evaluation and intervention services are provided ton all age groups concerned about feeding or swallowing disorders.

After a traumatic brain injury or stroke, a person‘s language or cognitive skills can be impaired. Cognitive areas affected may include: short-term memory; long –term memory; problem solving; reasoning; ability to answer questions appropriately; receptive or expressive aphasia (a loss of the ability to produce or comprehend language).

Neuro-motor speech disorder (Dysarthria/Apraxia of Speech)

These conditions can result from stroke or traumatic brain injury and it will affect an individual’s production or clarity of speech.

Dysarthria affects the muscle of the mouth, face and respiratory system. Muscles may become weak, move slowly or not move at all after a stroke or other brain injury. The type and severity of dysarthria depends on the area of the nervous system affected. Dysarthric speech usually sounds slurred, unclear or very soft. Apraxia of speech is a motor speech disorder caused by damage to parts of the brain related to speaking. People with apraxia of speech have difficulty planning and sequencing the sounds in syllabus and words. This results in the person making errors as they speak, especially in words. This results in the person making errors as they speak , especially in words of increasing length. The severity depends on the nature of the brain damage. Apraxia of speech can also occur as a speech disorder in young children.

Assessment and intervention services are provided to anyone with impaired receptive or expressive language skills, poor speech production or unintelligible speech, and impaired cognition following a stroke or brain injury.

Voice Disorders.

Voice disorders include a group of problems involving abnormal pitch, loudness, intonation, vocal quality, resonance and a rate of speech. Speech-Language anthologist work closely with Ear Nose & Throat specialists during assessment and diagnosis of voice disorders.

Assessment and intervention service are provided to all age groups with deficits in voice quality, including trache-oesophageal voice restoration.

General Guidelines regarding services:

Services are provided to inpatients and outpatients. We attend mainly to state patients and patients belonging to Public Service Employees Medical Aid Scheme (PSEMAS). Patients belonging to other private medical aids will only be attended to upon prior arrangements. We work with booking system, thus patient will only be able to attend to if an appointment has been scheduled. Should a patient not be able to attend an appointment, he/she is expected to cancel the appointment well in advanced.

Contact Information:

Name: Ms. Sigoopeni Klemens and Ms. Jomari Jurgens

TEL: (061) 20331477

TEL: (061) 222886

ENT Department

Ground Floor

Visiting InformationVisiting Information

Week days: 15:00 - 16:00

18:00 - 19:00

Weekends: 11:00 - 12:00

15:00 - 16:00

18:00 - 19:00

ICU Visiting Hours

Mon-Sun: 15:00 - 16:00

18:00 - 19:00

NB: For ICU Visitors ONLY, Maximum 6 people per patient, These must be the same people seeing the patient everyday until the patient is discharged.